OREANDA-NEWS. OJSC Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works ("MMK", or "the Company") (LSE: MMK) announces that a meeting of the MMK Board of Directors was held on 22 April 2016. 

The Board recommended that MMK’s Annual General Meeting of shareholders (AGM) approve dividends for the 2015 financial year in the amount of RUB 0.31 per common share of issued stock, and that the AGM set the cut-off date for eligibility to receive the dividend as the end of the business day on 7 June 2016.
The Board based its calculation of dividends for 2015 on MMK’s IFRS net profit in 2015, adjusted for one-off non-monetary losses (FX exchange loss of USD 173 mln and asset impairment loss of USD 179 mln). The adjusted net profit used for the dividend calculation thereby increased by USD 352 mln to USD 773 mln.

The Board also requested the CEO of MMK to provide for the Board approval a new dividend policy which would set the following:
- dividend pay-out ratio as a rule amounts to 30% from IFRS free cash flow;
- dividend payment as a rule is done on a semi-annual basis.

The Board added the following people to the list of candidates for the Board: Viktor Rashnikov, Nikolai Lyadov, Olga Rashnikova, Sergey Sulimov, Pavel Shilyaev.

At the meeting, the Board outlined the scope of documents (information) to be sent as reference to shareholders prior to the AGM and approved the order in which such documents (information) have to be presented.

To check and review this reference information, Company shareholders may visit the offices of the Status Registrar Company in Magnitogorsk (9 Zavenyagina St.) or MMK Shareholder Desk (6 Pushkina Av., rooms 421, 426) following 26 April 2016. Office hours: Mon-Thu, 9:00am-5:30pm, Fri, 9:00am-4:15pm, local time (both locations are closed for a break 12:00pm-1:00pm).

The Board issued a recommendation for the AGM to consider approving the Board-nominated Company Auditor, AO PriceWaterhouseCoopers Audit, and set the amount of payment for its services.

The Board has approved the ballot to be used for voting on the items listed on the AGM’s agenda.

MMK is one of the world's largest steel producers and a leading Russian metals company. The company's operations in Russia include a large steel-producing complex encompassing the entire production chain, from the preparation of iron ore to downstream processing of rolled steel. MMK turns out a broad range of steel products with a predominant share of high-value-added products. In 2015, the company produced 12.2 million tonnes of crude steel and 11.2 million tonnes of commercial steel products. MMK Group had sales in 2015 of USD 5,839 million and EBITDA of USD 1,668 million.